How Much Money Is in the World Right Now?

Money transformed the entire idea of the barter system. A medium of exchange for goods and services for centuries, money keeps matters of the world in a flow, helps countries exchange goods and services and develops friendly relationships.

Typically, every country has a central bank that regulates and publishes the money supply data in coordination with the government.

In the present world, money is present in various forms: physical – coins, notes – and virtual – electronic bank accounts, cryptocurrencies. This makes it hard to determine how much money exists.

To help answer how much money is in the world, here are currencies converted into the U.S. dollar as U.S. statistics are readily available.

What Are Different Types of Money?

Money is generally divided into different types of “Ms.” The range starts at the narrowest with M0 and goes up to the broadest, M3, following the central bank’s policy-making. The central bank in the USA is the Federal Reserve System, which publishes data based on four Ms:

The Federal Reserve System stopped tracking M3 money in 2006 because the M2 money supply already contains useful economic activity data.

After covering different types of money, here’s a look at the important question: “How much money is there in the world?”

How Much Money Is in the World?

If you’re curious about the total number of notes in circulation, the Fed estimated 50.3 billion notes in circulation at the end of 2020. This information is updated yearly, so this figure is likely to be higher now, though 2021 data has not yet been published on the Federal Reserve website.

By December 2020, the Federal Reserve data recorded $2.07 trillion total currency in circulation. This amount includes notes, coins and all kinds of currencies.

If you are searching for the total amount of physical money — notes and coins — you can expect to have around $40 trillion in the world right now. This figure only includes the “narrow money” that is, M1 — M0 and demand accounts.

If you add the “broad money” or M2 and M3, this figure could even rise to over $90.4 trillion. And we have still not included virtual money, such as bitcoins and other types of cryptocurrencies.

Money is also present in the form of investments and derivatives. This figure can even touch a quadrillion if we include all of them. It looks like this: $1,000,000,000,000,000. This amount even surpasses the total market capitalization of the U.S. stock market, which is $48,264,353.4 million, as of March 31, 2022.

According to Statista, the market capitalization of cryptocurrencies after the crash in May 2022 was $1354.54 billion, a significant drop from the $2 trillion of April 2021.

Future of Money: Is Cash Going to Be Replaced?

With countries striving hard to stabilize their economies, the total amount of money in circulation is expected to increase continuously.

Currently, more people are being drawn towards using virtual or digital currencies than physical money. This is why the use of physical money is gradually decreasing with the increased popularity of digital transactions.

China, Japan and Sweden have started trials of central bank digital currency. The Bank of England and the European Central Bank are also all set to conduct their own trials. The Bahamas has already launched the world’s first official digital currency.

If cash is to be replaced with digital currencies, it’s difficult to pinpoint how much money there is in the world. Quantifying something that has value but no physical existence is much trickier.

Final Take

There is around $40 trillion in physical money present globally. This amount can touch a quadrillion if cryptocurrencies, broad money — M2 and M3 — and investments and derivatives are added to that total. However, since the world is moving towards digitalization, physical money may become obsolete in the future.

More Answers About Money Circulating in the World

Here's more answers to questions about money and currency in the world today.

• What are the four Ms in money?

  • M0 refers to all the physical currency present in the world. M1 includes M0, plus all the money held in travelers' checks, demand deposits, other checkable deposits and negotiable order of withdrawal. M2 includes M1, plus mutual funds, saving deposits, money market securities and other types of time deposits. M3 includes M2, plus institutional money market funds, large certificates of deposits and short-term repurchase agreements.

• Which currency is the most valuable in the world?

  • The most valuable currency in the world is Kuwaiti Dinar (KWD). 1 KWD equals $3.33.

• What's the total value of cryptocurrencies?

  • The total value of cryptocurrencies surpassed $2 trillion as of August 2021, but the crypto market saw a significant crash in May 2022, dropping its market capitalization to just $1354.54 billion.

  • However, the cryptocurrency market seems to be recovering, and its value is expected to grow significantly as the world moves toward digitalization in the upcoming years.

• What is the world's total wealth?

  • According to a report from McKinsey & Company, global assets have grown from $440 trillion in 2000 to $1,540 trillion in 2020. The total net worth jumped from $160 trillion to over $510 trillion, including real estate prices, exchange rates, human resources, capital advancements and other factors.

Amber Barkley contributed to the reporting for this article.

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: How Much Money Is in the World Right Now?